Mint Is Pure Love - Chapter 38
“If you don’t feel like going to school, let’s just skip today.”
I suggested it, but Ji Yeonseo shook her head.
It was still dawn when I gave her a piggyback ride home again. She’d said she could walk if I lent her slippers, but after refusing just once, she quietly climbed onto my back as if she didn’t have the energy to argue. Her small, light body felt strangely hollow against me, and it left my chest aching for reasons I couldn’t explain.
I had a feeling.
That dim, bluish morning light… the colors of the road as I carried her down it… the warm weight of her on my back… the faint, soft scent that drifted to me with the breeze—
I knew, somehow, I would never forget this moment for the rest of my life.
After finishing my morning paper route, I went home, changed into my uniform, and headed to see her again.
In the crisp morning air, Ji Yeonseo looked like she could topple over at the slightest gust—fragile, like a dandelion seed clinging to its stem. It was summer, so there was no wind, and somehow, I found myself thankful for that.
We walked to school side by side.
A month away, and the school was exactly the same as always. The only thing worth hearing in class was a friend asking if something had happened to me over break, saying I somehow felt different.
As soon as the break bell rang, I went straight to Class 1. She was sitting alone at the window facing the playground.
The first-day-of-school chaos filled the building, but only Ji Yeonseo seemed untouched by it—silent, still. Seeing the back of her small head somehow made my chest feel cold.
I got restless. In that cramped classroom, not a single person seemed excited to be around her.
Why did it bother me so much that no one approached her? Why was I noticing this for the first time? Before, I’d only ever seen her, never the absence around her.
As if sensing my gaze, her long, straight hair shifted when she turned her head toward me. I started to step forward, ready to talk to her, but she shook her head. Don’t come. Don’t act like you know me.
Why?
“Seokyung, what are you doing here?” A girl from the back door called to me.
“How was your break?”
Her name was… Yoojung, or something? Anyway, she was supposed to be one of Ji Yeonseo’s friends. When our eyes met, she looked away shyly, and for some reason, that shyness annoyed me. That was new, too.
When I looked back, Yeonseo was still watching me, but then she turned away. I stared at the back of her head for a while, then turned around.
[Let’s go home together. I have something to say.]
I texted her, but the wait felt unbearably long. We’d walked together just this morning—so why did she suddenly feel like a mirage I might never see again?
“Hey, so Kim Eunho totally dumped Ji Yeonseo?”
My ears caught the name instantly.
“Serves her right, acting all high and mighty just ‘cause she’s pretty.”
“Like a dog staring at the roof after losing the chicken.”
“Wasn’t Kim Eunho chasing after her? Then doesn’t that make him the dog?”
“Who cares, just drop it.”
“Still, his new girlfriend is scary as hell.”
“But she’s pretty. And loaded. They say she’s better than Ji Yeonseo at—”
“At what?”
“Oh, come on, you know what I mean.”
Their faces, making obscene gestures mid-air, were disgusting.
“Was Yeonseo good at that too? Did they do it?”
“They dated for months. You think they didn’t even kiss?”
The sharp, pricking sound of their snickering made me nauseous. I stretched my leg out and kicked a chair, the crash cutting their laughter short.
“Shut the hell up and get lost.”
They blinked at me, startled.
“Didn’t you hear me? I said get out.”
My voice dropped low, and they finally shuffled out. I could feel eyes on me—surprised, maybe confused. So what.
Heat spread through my body, anger boiling deep in my gut. It had been so long since I’d felt this way that even my hands tingled. I wanted to chase those bastards down and smash my fist into their faces.
“Did you see Yeonseo today? I think her double eyelids are gone—her eyes were all swollen.”
“She had surgery? Figures. No wonder her eyes were so big before.”
“Come on, you think that’s all she had done? Her dad’s company has a partner plastic surgery clinic. Apparently, all the JSB female trainees get work done there before debut. Bet she did too.”
“Really? Yeah… no one’s born looking like that.”
“Then why didn’t she debut?”
“I heard she got caught flirting with all the male trainees. She even got bullied at Myeongjin Middle for the same thing. Too many rumors, so the company kicked her out.”
“No way.”
“Her dad’s the CEO—you think she’d get kicked out for something small?”
What the actual hell.
I turned my head and saw the girls saying this—same class, but strangers to me. They flushed when they noticed me watching. I resisted the urge to throw a desk at them and stormed out.
From then on, my ears only caught one word.
Yeonseo. Yeonseo. Yeonseo.
This school didn’t run on anything else. Just gossip, ridicule, and contempt about her. She’d become someone it was “okay” to insult, laugh at, and tear apart, even though none of it was true. They had no right. No reason. Nothing.
Now I understood why she was so afraid of people’s eyes. Why she worried about even being seen with me. No one could shield her—everything turned into an arrow aimed at her name.
“…Ha.”
So this is what you went through every day. Not just the glances I’d caught before, but these constant, stabbing words. And what had I said to you?
“If people pity you, or even just look your way, isn’t that a good thing? Why do you care what people think? What’s it matter if someone doesn’t like you?”
I’d said that—carelessly, stupidly, without knowing how you survived each day.
My chest tightened.
“I don’t care about that stuff.”
“Who are they to look at me that way? I just won’t eat lunch.”
“Seokyung… I have nowhere to go. No place I belong.”
The heart I thought was unshakable… how many times had it been slashed open by the knives they swung so recklessly?
Now I knew why she’d looked so faint from outside the classroom that day. In this school, under those stares, it wouldn’t be strange if she disappeared at any moment.
It hurt, like my heart was being wrung out.
When homeroom finally ended, I went straight to Class 1. Her seat by the window was empty except for a few kids sweeping nearby. My chest clenched. I rushed down the hall and flew down the stairs.
Ignoring someone calling me from the basketball court, I just ran.
Beneath the shade of the plane trees, her long hair fluttered as she walked away. Like a ship finding its harbor, I ran toward her.
A few steps away, I slowed down, caught my breath. I tried to calm the urge to just grab her hand. I needed to figure out exactly what to say so it would reach her. What should I start with? How could I put it so she’d truly understand?
“Yeonseo.”
She stopped and slowly turned around. Her pale face looked drained, her eyes gentle and damp.
I had to say it now—before it was too late, before she vanished like heat haze.
“…Yeonseo.”
But I’d overlooked one thing—what I was about to say was something I had never said in my life. Something even I, usually so calm and detached, couldn’t say without my heart pounding.
“Go out with me, Yeonseo.”
Under the green shade, you sparkled, and my throat went dry. The fear that you’d disappear quieted now that you were right in front of me.
Slowly, her pink lips parted.
“…Why should we date? What is it you want to do with me?”
What I wanted to do with you… things I wanted only with you… things only I could give you.
“Eat lunch with me every day.” So you won’t skip meals anymore, so you won’t have to care about anyone’s eyes.
“Go home with me.” So your shoulders won’t look like someone could snatch you away at any second.
“If you don’t understand the notes or homework, ask me.” Don’t suffer in silence, don’t tiptoe around.
“…If people are cruel or something happens, tell me.” Whatever it is, tell me, Yeonseo.
“Cha Seokyung… why do you want to date me?”
Why? Because… of course…
A thousand things crowded my throat, fighting to be said first. I pulled out the lightest one—the one least likely to scare you.
“…Because I can’t stand seeing you like this.”
“…”
“…Because I’m afraid you’ll leave.”
Leave this wretched school, leave my side without a second thought—shake off everything here, including me, and be gone.
From behind, voices and footsteps approached—a group of kids, carrying the stares that would sting her again. My urgency spiked.
“So date me.”
“…”
“I want to be with you, Yeonseo.”